MirCorp Update: An orbit change and a full work day to start the week

The new week for Mir cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery began with a full day of work, as well as an increase of the space station’s orbital altitude.

Following a 19h00 GMT wakeup Sunday evening, mission commander Zalyotin tested the Optovert and Datamir experiment equipment to study gravitational changes in sensor systems, while flight engineer Kalery performed a routine monitoring of carbon dioxide levels inside the station.

The crew also conducted preparatory work for tests to pinpoint the location of a small air leak on Mir, and they provided ground-based personnel with weekly information on water usage.

After the first of two exercise sessions for the day, the cosmonauts monitored the burn of thrusters on the Soyuz manned transport spacecraft that raised Mir’s altitude by the equivalent of 1 km. The burn – which used the Soyuz spacecraft’s rendezvous and docking thrusters – took place at 1h00:47 GMT, increasing the maximum altitude to 349.4 km. and raising the minimum altitude height to 326.3 km. Prior to the burn, the Mir station’s maximum altitude was 349.29 km., while the minimum altitude was 324.75 km.

Other activity included a session with the Uragan (“Hurricane”) experiment, which is taking video and still images of the Earth to monitor natural and man-made disasters.

The day ended Monday morning at 9h40 GMT, when the cosmonauts went to sleep.